Greetings citizens of the world,
I am happy to announce that our statement */"Hands off Syria" /**means
Russia too*
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/please-join-us-by-signing-this.html>
is now available in seven languages:
[English]
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/please-join-us-by-signing-this.html>
[Italian]
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/giu-le-mani-dalla-siria-vale-anche-per.html>
[German]
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/hande-weg-von-syrien-gilt-auch-fur.html>
[Spanish]
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/manos-fuera-de-siria-se-aplica-tambien.html>
[Arabic] <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/blog-post.html>
[Russian <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/blog-post_19.html>] and
[French]
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/pas-dinterventions-en-syrie-sapplique.html>
I am asking that you join with people from over the world in signing
this statement and standing with us in opposing all military attacks on
civilian targets. Russia has already bombed five hospitals in Idlib
province with no admission of responsibility and no apology. Putin is
fighting to keep in power the most homicidal regime we have seen in many
decades.
My second ask is that you reach into your pocket to help a couple of
Syria refugees in Kusel, Germany.
Basel Abdulla Watfa is a Syrian from Homs that volunteered his services
as professional translator to Linux Beach in the past. He has translated
a number of my most important pieces into Arabic and he has translated a
number of important pieces coming out of Syria into English, allowing
Linux Beach to share them with a wider audience.
I hadn't communicated with him for over a year and when I reached out to
him for a Syrian translation of our statement, he brought today's
headlines about the Syrian refugee crisis home to me in a very personal
way. He responded through his smart phone from a refugee camp in Kusel
in the west of Germany. When last I had contact with him, he was already
a refugee in Egypt and his girlfriend, Luna, and brother had just been
arrested in Damascus by the Assad regime. His brother was released in a
matter of weeks but Luna, who is a journalist and photographer and had
been working with the Violations Documentation Center to document
Assad's chemical massacres in East Ghouta in 2013, was being charged
with /"leaking fake photos of chemical massacre to foreign parties."
/Although I didn't know it at the time, she was the author of an
important report in the sarin attack that Basel translated, and I
published under the title Witness to CW Attack: When Paradise turned to
Hell
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/09/witness-to-cw-attack-when-paradise.html>.
She was held in Assad's torture gulag for more than a year. After she
was released she reunited with Basel in Turkey and after some months
they decide to risk the rubber /"death boat" /because they think their
chances of reuniting with Luna's two sons will be better there.
Now they are living in a tent with 250 other Syrian refugees. Although
Basel has just seen his first professional book translation published a
few months ago, he had to leave his laptop, and much else, behind when
they took the boat from Germany and they have no Internet where they
are. They carefully documented their refugee journey from Syria to
Germany in pictures and video, and Luna has begun to document her
experiences in Assad prison on this wordpress site
<https://baselluna.wordpress.com/>. They now want to make this material
available to the world.
These two Syrian freedom fighters have contributed much already and have
so much more to contribute that when I heard about their situation, I
thought, /"Its time for another GoFundMe campaign."/ But not for me this
time. I am doing quite well now and I want to take this opportunity to
thank all of you who contributed to my two fund raising campaigns in
2014. You allowed me to survive a particularly difficult period in my
life and arrive a place where I'm in a position to give back more than
ever. Now I'm asking you to do this again. This time for Luna and Basel
Walfa.
See this blog post for more about Basel & Luna and for the link to the
GoFundMe campaign <https://www.gofundme.com/7z6m5qq4>:
Basel & Luna made it from Syria to Germany safely but they still
need your help
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/10/basel-luna-made-it-from-syria-to.html>
In Solidarity,
Clay Claiborne
--
Clay Claiborne, Owner
Cosmos Engineering Co. <http://CosmosEng.com/>
116 Rose Ave, Ste. 9
Venice Beach, CA 90291
(310)581-1536
(323) 219-6507 cell